I know I have patterns and I've always tried hard to avoid them. There are definitely certain things in my music, if I'm looking back, "Well, that was a period where I was experimenting with a certain kind of chord structure or a certain kind of sound." I've tried really hard, but I'd be hard pressed to tell you what that sound, what that tangible sound of "me" is.

In modern studios, we're so used to becoming little dictators; you're used to the fascism of having complete control over every element.

Civilization rests on a set of promises; if the promises are broken too often, the civilization dies, no matter how rich it may be, or how mechanically clever. Hope and faith depend on the promises; if hope and faith go, everything goes.

You always come back to Duke Ellington - he's kind of like the thread that holds everything together from the big band descending to lots of jazz, actually.

I think I have a particular logic of my own that has to do with sound and sampling sound, and there isn't a great deal of music out there in that field. Whereas, harmonically and melodically, there's loads.

I think rhythm is, when you talk about rhythmic sensibility, quite perceptive in that I like to have at least one thing that is at least common or familiar to the audience.

Chaos is hateful. That indeterminate nature of war brings a really unsettling atmosphere to life.